In This Time
by SailingNotSelling
Summary: It was all different. Anbu caught the suspect trying to release the Nine Tails when Kushina gave birth. Itachi did not have to kill his entire Clan, but ultimately had to help destroy any evidence of the rendezvous. They thought everything would be perfect. Until they learned Madara was not accounted for, and he was coming for revenge in more ways than one. SasuSaku.
1. Prologue

_Prologue: The Beginning of Everything_

The threat of the Nine-Tails destroying Konoha was avoided. Which changed the whole dynamic for the village called Konoha. Anbu guards incapacitate the masked man known as Tobi, during the birth of Naruto. Thus saving Kushina, from having the Nine-Tailed beast from being extracted, saving her life as well as the life of many villagers. The seal of the Nine- Tails was strengthened for Kushina, their family, and the village safety after Naruto's birth since the seal got so weak. Years have passed since the incident

Six years have passed to be exact. Minato, as the present Fourth Hokage, had received news from a prodigy of the Uchiha Clan, Itachi Uchiha. He brought news of the Head of the Uchiha Clan also his own father, Fugaku Uchiha, had intentions of overthrowing the village. Itachi had been a double agent. He knew what would happen if the elders found the information he did. Minato knew very little about the Uchiha Clan in general except that they were power driven and hatred had run deep in their family. He also knew very little of the younger son, Sasuke, but knew a great deal of Itachi. He graduated the academy at the youngest age of 7, mastered his Sharingan at age 8, passed his Chuunin exams at age 10, entered Anbu at age 11, and became head Anbu captain at 13. Minato worked closely with Itachi, exceling at such a young age was a great deal of stress. So taking in this information was a sensitive subject.

Minato and Itachi decided not to tell the village elders of complete information since the elders already had their own suspicions of the clan betraying their village. Minato himself decided that lying to the elders would be the only way to save the Uchiha clan. He did not tell them they had intentions of overthrowing their government, but told them they knew information that would be lethal if it got into the wrong hands.

After a long meeting, Itachi was ordered to give a complete list of the members of the clan that had agreed to participate in the act. It took some begging and pleading to convince them Shisui was on their side. The activists on the list were had their chakra sealed completely as well as required to well chakra restraints at all time since they were in contempt of the village. Activists were sent to the Suna to have a Memory-Concealing Jutsu performed. When they returned to the village, such activists were placed in a chakra proof room, not accessible to many except, the Hokage and very few Anbu for security reasons until further notice. Once safety was ensured, the Uchiha members were ensured to return home.

Once the process was complete Itachi returned home for the first time in several days. He knew his mother would be disappointed in him. He betrayed the Clan's trust. It's not as if the activists would remember him doing it, or anyone for that matter except his mother. He had appealed for the whole clan to have their memory wiped of the situation so that members would not suddenly agree with taking over the village, and all the homes were raided taking any plans of the rendezvous.

He opened his front door and took of his shoes and entered the house. He instantly heard the footsteps of his 6 year old brother coming to greet him with a hug. "Nii-san, can I show you the new jutsu I've been practicing today," he asked excitedly. Itachi leaned down and poked his forehead.

"Not right now, where is Okaa-san at?" asked Itachi. He felt a little guilty after seeing his brother frown after turning down his request.

"She's in the kitchen," muttered Sasuke as he walked his way to the backyard. Itachi made his way into the kitchen to see his mother preparing dinner. She didn't even have to look at him to know he was in the room.

"I'm not upset at what you did," she said as she began cutting vegetables. Itachi remained silent, as an overwhelming rush of relief came through him.

"You did the right thing. Konoha has been good to us, and the reasons for the rendezvous was for pure power and selfishness. So I am not upset about that. Maybe now your father will give Sasuke the time of day since he is no longer going to be tied with that coupe. However, I am upset that you did not tell me about this sooner. Maybe I could have helped. I'm really good friends with Kushina and Minato. You know that your brother and their son, Naruto, are best friends, practically inseparable," after voicing her opinion she stopped cutting the vegetables and looked at Itachi. She could see emotions running through his face, and she frowned a bit. "I don't want you to have to make decisions like that on your own. If you were to tell all the information, every one of us could have been slaughtered except you. That includes your little brother," she said.

She looked out the window watching Sasuke practice his Fireball Jutsu, Itachi followed in suit watching him. Tears slid down his face from thinking that he could have almost had his family killed. It was not an impossible thought, the elders are ruthless enough to order something like that. Mikoto walked over to her son and gave him a hug. He let out so many emotions that he didn't know that he was keeping inside.

He vowed then that he would protect anyone and everything from hurting his younger brother. He had potential to excel greatly, possibly succeed himself. Itachi knew if the clan elders were to find out, they would not haggle at the chance to make him into a genius killing machine. His main focus was not of the elders, however it was of his Uncle, Uchiha Madara. He was never counted for in the cleansing of the Uchiha. Which made everything, complicated. The mastermind behind the plans escaped. Madara must have known all along. With him on the loose, put Sasuke's future and anyone involved with him was in danger.


	2. Bonds and Relations

_In This Time: Bonds and Relations..._

* * *

The head Uchiha family sat at their dinner table. It was a rare occasion. There is at least one person always missing. Itachi was usually out on missions. Being a Black Ops team captain requires a lot of work and time. He spent most of his nights on missions to protect his village, nearly losing his life a handful of times. His mother was worried sick daily, thinking he's going to overwork himself into a heart attack but his father was proud as ever. Fugaku usually stayed in his study, tending to clan business and police force business. Mikoto is always worried about him. Not just him, but him and his relationship with their children.

All Fugaku does is praise Itachi. Showers him with attention no matter the circumstance, yet will not acknowledge anything Sasuke does. Sasuke can never do anything right it in his father's eyes. It's always _Itachi did this_ and _Itachi did that_ when Sasuke mentioned anything relating to grades and training. Sasuke became so distant from his family it's unreal. He's always at the Uzumaki-Namikaze household. He only comes home for meals, to shower, to sleep, Mikoto and Itachi. Sasuke avoids his father at all costs. Itachi makes time when he can to spend it with Sasuke. Itachi loves him more than anything else in this world. Mikoto just wishes Fugaku could see all the tension he's creating between them all. Fugaku is Fugaku, and to him, he's never at fault nor wrong.

The family was sitting at the table eating silently. No one said a word. All you heard was the sound of the spoon touching the bowl of the Miso soup.

"So little brother, I heard your team gets along well together," said Itachi as he tried to initiate conversation.

"I guess so. It's me and Naruto really. The other girl doesn't really do much," he began to think about all the times they had to save her.

"What do you mean?" Itachi questioned.

"Well, she's really shy. She also has crush on me. I usually see her with the Yamanaka girl. She always freezes up in battles. She nearly got killed a few times," muttered Sasuke.

"She's what makes you guys a team, Sasuke. She's still learning just like you and Naruto had to learn. You two just had an earlier start than she did. Just give her some time," corrected Mikoto.

"Well, you guys have a pretty high successful mission rate though," complimented Itachi.

"No high enough. Your genin team had a 99 percent success rate," was the monotonous stern voice of Fugaku Uchiha. The dinner table silenced and the tension became dense.

"Father, for a team with a girl that freezes up in battle that way that's impressive," defended Itachi. Sasuke stopped eating and looked down. Mikoto watched her youngest son with worried eyes.

"She should not be on that team. A girl from a civilian family should not be on a team with the Hokage's son and an Uchiha. A Hyuuga would be better fitted," counted Fugaku.

Sasuke glared daggers at his father, "Her family is shinobi. You don't even know her."

"I do not need to Sasuke. Maybe a Hyuuga on your squad will would make you a better ninja since Neji is exceling better than you currently are," said Fugaku. It was his final remark before he excused himself from his table.

Itachi put his spoon down and looked at Sasuke. Mikoto out her hands over her face, shaking her head.

"Sasuke-dear, I am so sorry," came the sad voice of their mother. Tears slowly started sliding her face.

"Don't apologize for his behavior. I'm going to Naruto's," Sasuke excused himself to his room to collect his things.

"He's right mother. It's not your responsibility. Will you excuse me, I have a meeting soon," Itachi hugged her before retreating to his room.

Mikoto wiped off her tears and stood. She began to gather the dishes, all the bowls were half full.

All she wanted was a nice family dinner.

X-X

It was a late in the village of Konoha. It was around nine o'clock at night. That did not stop a pink-haired Kunoichi from sitting on a bench along a pathway. Tears were streaming down her face, she could not help it. Things just did not seem to be going in her favor currently. All of it related to her teammates too. Too many thoughts were going through her head, maybe the ninja life was not for her.

"Sakura," she'd recognize that voice anywhere. It was her crush after all. Her head popped up and looked him. Quickly wiping her tears, but Sasuke saw them already.

"Sasuke-kun, what are you doing here? Shouldn't you be home?" she questioned.

"Hn." Sakura frowned and looked down back at her shoes.

Sasuke just stared at her. He felt a little guilty for his response.

"Going to Naruto's. Why are you here?" was Sasuke's new response.

"My parents are arguing again," she said quietly running fingers through her long hair. "And Ino and I are not friends anymore."

Sasuke to a seat next to her, staring at the trees ahead. Sakura took that as key to argue.

"They always argue about small things. They'd argue about if a pillow wasn't fluffed enough." She smiled about it. "It's the romantic cute type of arguing where they'd laugh about it minutes later. My mother is very serious, and my dad is very carefree, so you can see why a pillow would start an argument. But today when I got home, they didn't hear me come in. I heard them on the sofa having a heated discussion about me being a ninja."

Sasuke found irony in her last statement since he was arguing with his father practically for the same reason.

"I overheard them talking about how me retiring from being a ninja." She laughed a little. "I'm not even a real ninja yet. My mother thinks I'm going to get myself killed because I don't really know what I'm doing yet. We all started at that point at one time, so why should I stop? My father was defending me, but my mother thinks otherwise." Silence came between the two for a couple seconds.

"I was arguing with my father."

Sakura looked him shockingly. Almost as if she was surprised his family had arguments. "Really?"

"Hn. We're human too," came Sasuke's irritated response.

"Sorry."

"What happened to your friend?"

Sakura thought hard before she explained the situation. "We didn't want our friendship to come between our competition over a guy, so we broke off our friendship."

"That's stupid and annoying." Sakura frowned. She could not stand the word annoying. Since that was all he calls her. All she does is try to make herself the best for him, and he just finds it annoying. He treats her like all of his other fan girls.

"Never break a bond over something so dumb." Sakura looked taken back. Sasuke stood up and shoved his hands into his pockets and began walking away.

"I'm leaving. See you at training,"

 _He's not perfect either._ This was final thought before heading in the opposite direction to her home.

X-X

The breezed picked up as he was walking to the Uzumaki home. He began to ponder about how his father thought of his career so far. He graduated with the best marks from the academy, alongside Sakura who tied him for best marks. He trained day and night, perfecting his jutsu and learning more. His sessions was not over after Team Seven's training sessions. He trained with Lee to perfect his taijutsu as well as speed. Minato even attempted to help him in his training, and he's the Hokage. If he's not at Itachi's level, it's not enough.

Sasuke approached the Uzumaki's door and knocked. He waited a couple seconds before Naruto opened it.

"Teme! I didn't know you were coming," he exclaimed.

"I wanted to get out the house. Am I allowed to sleep over?" Sasuke asked.

"I think my parents would be cool with it. They aren't here right now," was Naruto's answer. He moved to the side allowing Sasuke to enter his home. He went to the living room, dropping his bag on the floor and taking a seat of the sofa.

"Where are they?" he asked. Naruto sat on the couch across from him.

"Some emergency meeting like always" was Naruto's response.

"Hn."

"Why are you here so late anyways? You never come by this late."

"Disagreement with my family."

"Oh man! What Itachi do this time?"

"It was my father."

"Oh." That took Naruto by surprise. Sasuke never mentioned arguments between him and his parents. They were always between Itachi and his parents for rebelling.

"He thinks I'm not a good shinobi, and talked about how weak Sakura is."

"Are you kidding me? He doesn't even know Sakura-chan! She's the sweetest girl out there! She'd kill for one of us. We're her family despite how many times we had to save her. He cannot talk about her any type of way!" was just the beginning of Naruto's rant. "You work your ass off nonstop and he thinks he can say that to you. You're his own child. There's kids out there without families and he's just trying to push you away!"

"Dobe. Shut up," was Sasuke's rude interruption.

"Teme!"

"Dobe." The two started going back and forth for a few minutes before Naruto got a sudden idea.

"Teme! Let's break into the meeting!"

"Do you ever think? Do you not understand how heavily guarded that meeting probably is."

"I have my ways. My dad took me there before!"

"You were with your _father_. Not by yourself. They'd let you in with him. This is stupid. Why would we even go? It has nothing to do with us."

"Just have some faith in me teme!"

"What about the guards that watch your house, dobe?" Naruto looked at clock and grinned hard.

"They are rotating now. There's 6 minutes with no one standing outside my house. We have three minutes left." Sasuke glared at Naruto, he realized this battle was one that he would not when, like talking Naruto out of Ichiraku. Naruto was wiggling his eyebrows at Sasuke trying to convince him.

Sasuke frowned and sighed and got up, "Let's go."

The duo ran out of Naruto's house across the village. Since they were supposed to be inside the house, they masked their chakra and stuck to the streets. Rooftops would have surely gave them away. Naruto began leading them to an abandoned house.

"Where are we going?" Sasuke got skeptical watching Naruto open the door to the house.

"This has an underground tunnel, which leads to the basement of the Anbu building. That's where the meeting is," said Naruto walking to the basement door.

"How do you know all of this?" questioned Sasuke as the two walked down the steps.

"I overheard my dad talking about where the meeting was. Mizuki-sensei showed me this place.

"Mizuki? Dobe, why didn't you report him."

"Because I can sneak into the Anbu building! Now help me move this slab of cement." The two moved it slightly so they can fit between the spaces and climb down the ladder. Once they were in the tunnel they walked for a bit following the trail. Making a turn until they reached an air duct. They worked together to remove a vent to climb inside. They crawled around for a bit. Voices from one area caught there attention, that must be where the meeting was. They peaked into the room.

There were many superior officials of Konoha in the room. There was the Hokage and his wife, Anbu members, the head of the Hyuuga clan, and some of the village elders. One of the Anbu members faced the direction of the vent for a few seconds. Sasuke frowned, they were caught. He'd recognize that mask anywhere. It was his older brother, Itachi. His brother faced back to the others when the discussion got heated. They were too far into the room to see who was arguing.

 _He's becoming more of a threat, we need to find him._

 _That makes the new death total to 6 people in 3 days._

 _We can send Anbu squads to help to search for him._

 _That's useless, it has been 6 years since someone saw his appearance. We could walk past him without even recognizing them._

 _At this rate, he's going to cause a war soon, killing ninjas from other villages and leaving the Leaf symbol on their bodies will get attention soon._

 _That's why we had Anbu guarding the perimeter confiscate those bodies._

 _Whose blood was on the letter?_

 _We're analyzing it now._

 _Does anyone from his clan know about his whereabouts?_

 _They don't know._

 _Let's just hope he's working by himself._

 _If he's working with Akatsuki or Orochimaru we're in trouble._

 _Alright. Meetings over. Dismissed._

All the people in the room began exiting through the door. Sasuke and Naruto looked at each other and began crawling fast to exit the air duct and tunnel. Once they returned the slab back to its original spot. They ran to Naruto's house. There's no way they are going to make it back before Minato does without getting intercepted by Itachi.

"Let's make a detour!" shouted Naruto making a quick left. He starting jumping on the rooftops, Sasuke followed.

"Where are we going?" questioned Sasuke.

"Sakura-chan's house!"

X-X

Sakura stared at her reflection in the vanity brushing her hair. She pointed out all her flaws and her inner did not help put those thoughts to ease.

 _ **You'll never be as pretty as Ino. Look at your Forehead. Sasuke will never fall for you. You have pink hair on top of it.**_

Sakura couldn't take her own conscious anymore, so she got up and walked to her bed. She started organizing her weapons by use and size. People's opinions of her being a Kunoichi started taking a toll on her. She was just deemed unfit by people to be a ninja.

 _ **Sorry to break you out of yourself loathing. But Naruto and Sasuke are about come through your window.**_

Sakura blushed and quickly cleaned her room. Sasuke is coming. This will be the first time he's ever set foot into her home, let alone her bedroom. Sakura quickly brushed her hair some more and changed into sweatpants and t-shirt. She straightening up small things on her vanity and her desk. She took a book off her bookshelf and sat at her desk. She opened it to any page just as Sasuke and Naruto came flying through her window.

"Sakura-chan! Do you mind if I hide out here?" Sakura rolled her eyes.

"It wouldn't be the first time, Idiot," she said as she looked at him.

"I brought Sasuke too! We snuck out my house," started Naruto laughing nervously. She blushed a little staring at Sasuke.

"Let me guess, the guards are at back and you can't sneak in without getting caught?"

"Hn."

"I'll go get some snack," is what Sakura said before she left her room.

Sasuke began looking around in her room. He noticed some of their team pictures on her desk. He saw how organized her weapons. He got up and walked to her bookshelf. He looked at some of the books she collected. Some was on weapons, a few were on taijutsu, a few on chakra control most were fiction stories and one was about medicine. The book about medicine looked like it was never opened. He looked at the book on her desk, and saw it was another about chakra control.

 _Well at least she tries_ was his thought.

* * *

 **Authors Remarks**

 **Thanks for all the PM's, Favorites, and Follows but please Review!**

 **1\. I apologize for how boring this chapter is. I just had to get the bases across. I can't have them dating by the end of this chapter when they barely even talk.** _ **Being realistic!**_

 **2\. This chapter wasn't supposed to be this long at all. The original chapter was half of this length but it felt super rushed which wasn't okay with me. So I had to go back and elongate everything.**

 **3\. I understand they are a little out of character, but do remember, they don't have all the sad and bad pasts. I can't just leave this happy go-lucky!**

 **4\. To the few people that asked these questions. Yes, Naruto still has the Kyuubi, he's the Hokage son and it never attacked the village so there's no reason for villagers to attack and threaten him. Yes, Shisui will be in this story. According to my diagram for this story, his appearance is very soon as well as the rest of the squad. I can't just introduce everyone all at once.**

 **5\. I can't answer the rest of the questions for the sake of the story.**

 **6\. Please Review!**

 _ **What to think about?**_

 _ **What was the contents of the letter?**_

 _ **Why does Mizuki know about the entrance to Anbu?**_

 _ **Why was the Uchiha head not present at the meeting?**_

 _SailingNotSelling._


	3. Little Secrets and Little Lies

_Chapter 2: Little Secrets and Little Lies..._

Team Seven sat at the training ground in the shade. The trio sat under the tree waiting for Kakashi to return about a prospective mission. They only received missions in the village, those usually had the three chasing lost pets, painting fences and walls, or helping elderly civilians bring food home. They had complained about not receiving enough missions in the village. Naruto said they had done so many that their future children should never have to do any. Kakashi decided that maybe they could handle a C-rank mission. Despite the constant bickering between Sasuke and Naruto, and Sakura trying to win Sasuke's heart with her looks, they worked well together as a Team. They cared for one another even if all of them are too stubborn to admit the truth.

Naruto had a great source of chakra, mostly due to Kurama inside of him. That allowed him to create thousands of shadow clones without even denting his chakra. With Nine Tails inside of him, his wounds healed on their own, slowly but the fox definitely healed it. Sasuke was an Uchiha. He had one of the strongest Kekkai Genkai in all the countries. It was the most desired. His family excelled in their shinobi lives. They moved through ranks faster than any other clan and had better profiles than many. His older brother is the legendary Uchiha Itachi. He graduated from the academy early, excelled in all jutsus, and climbed ranks faster than any other shinobi in Konoha history. Sasuke skills was way above average, but nearly not as good as his older brother. Then there was Sakura. She was the smartest genin of them all. Her jutsu may not be good but her brain worked better than most adults. She created plans to attack in a matter of minutes, maybe even seconds. Her marks in the academy beat the youngest Uchiha and rivaled the older Uchiha.

Their bond was completely different. Sasuke and Naruto grew up together. Their parents were best friends. Theirs pictures all over the home of two at their childhood playdates. They may be best friends but they are also rivals. They both want to excel past one another. If someone is visibly stronger the other will fight to be that strong as well. Naruto also cared about Sakura, as more than teammate and friend. He had a crush on her since the academy. He thought everything about her was perfect even when she cried he thought she was still beautiful. He would never tell her though. No one knew of his feelings for his pink-haired teammate, he was waiting for the right time to tell her. Since he always took the extra step to care for Sakura, Sasuke had to too. If something were to happen to their teammate Naruto would go on a rampage and for that he protected her too. Sakura 'loves' Sasuke. She idolized him and everything he did. Since Naruto was his best friend, she had to care for him too. Their bond sort of a fucked a triangle, but it worked for them.

Sakura released a heavy sigh. "He told us to be here 3 hours ago, and yet he still isn't here."

"I'm going to kick his ass! Believe it!" shouted Naruto. He already began calculating was of ambushing him.

"We should have have known he wouldn't show up on time. He never does for training anyway," muttered Sasuke. He looked agitated.

"Sasuke's right. We should have known. However, that would be the time he would actually show up on time," said Sakura. She ran a hand through her hair, trying to stop the frizz from the heat. She just washed it.

"Doesn't mean anything! He just better be prepared for the ass whooping of a lifetime!"

"Oh really?" All three turned their head into the direction of the voice.

"You're late!" they all shouted in unison.

"Only because I had to get you guys a mission," was his response.

Naruto stood up, "No way!"

"What mission?" questioned Sakura. Sasuke just kept silent waiting for the details.

Kakashi threw the scroll at the group and pulled out his Icha Paradise book. "It's a simple escort mission with a bridge builder."

"When do we leave?" Sasuke asked.

"Tomorrow morning. Now go home." With that being said Kakashi poofed away.

"I'm so excited!" shouted Naruto jumping up and down. "Let's celebrate by getting Ichiraku!"

Their pink haired teammate glared at Naruto. "No," was her answer.

"Aww come one Sakura-chan! It's been hours since my last bowl!" he begged. Sakura felt bad for turning him down.

"Later tonight. Around 9 we can all meet up for ramen," said Sakura's in a defeated tone.

"Okay! I gotta go help my dad! Bye!" and just like that. Naruto was off running to the Hokage tower. Sakura looked at Sasuke who had his back facing her. She just sat back down on the ground.

"Aren't you going to go home?" Sasuke asked. Sakura looked up at him in surprise. He was facing her too.

"I'd rather not. I was going to hang out here for a little bit longer before I went home," she answered truthfully.

"Are your parents arguing again?" he asked. Sakura looked at him a little shocked that he remembered about her parents arguing.

"Over what color to paint the walls," she answered truthfully. Sasuke sat at a tree farther away from Sakura.

"Hn."

* * *

Itachi sat at the kitchen table with his mother. Neither said a word. She was okay with that. Mikoto understood that whatever was on her sons mind was very troubling. She would allow him all the time in the world to get his thoughts out. At least until Fugaku returned home. It was moments like these between the two that needed to remain in private.

"Madara wasn't accounted for in the cleansing." Mikoto's eyes shot up at stared at her son. Looking for any signs of deception. Not that he would lie, and she fully believed anything her son had to say.

"How did they come to that conclusion? What does that mean?" she asked. It was another brief silence.

"Because there is not even a single record of Madara being accounted for. A letter was sent to the Village. It was written in blood. They analyzed the blood. It was one of our shinobi that did not return with his squadron," he said. He ran his fingers through his hair. Mikoto didn't want to ask any more questions. So she waited for her eldest son to continue.

"It looks like he's not going to stop until he gets what he wants."

Silence.

"No one knows what he wants. There's also a spy in the village. We don't know who. It could be any one. Danzo found out about the letter within hours. So his spy must work near the Hokage or knows people that do. Danzo thinks the entire clan has something to do with this." Itachi glared at the window. He saw his brother and his teammate walking toward their home. Mikoto rubbed his shoulder.

It killed her knowing how her son knew all this information and could not do anything about it. At his age, he should be enjoying his life. Not stressing over protecting his clan as well as his village.

"Madara, Danzo and a spy is not good. It will not help once the Akatsuki become active again," he said. Mikoto pulled out some bottles of water and sliced fruit and placed them on the table in case Sasuke and his friend wanted any.

"Is there only one spy?" Mikoto questioned.

"Honestly, I doubt it. I think there is more than one spy. I think the spy works closer to someone who has easy access to the Hokage. Like Naruto. Minato is his father. I wonder if Sasuke knows anything since he's always around Naruto. He owes me the favor," said Itachi.

"None of this sounds good," sighed Mikoto.

"Madara himself isn't good. He is just as bad as Danzo. He wants us all did based off the last time I spoke to him. He feels as though the Clan is breaking old traditions and that it's due to the village. I would not be surprised if what he wanted was to be the Hokage of the village or wipe out majority of clan to start fresh with his own customs and traditions being center," she said. Itachi she be worried about how calmly she said it. But at the same time, he knew she was right. He could feel that this clan was going to down fall and if it wasn't sooner, it would definitely be later.

He knew that telling anyone classified information can result in immediate execution.

He didn't care though because he trusted his mother and he knew she would never tell.

But things were getting a little too hard for him to keep his sanity.

Now that the entire clan was under suspicion since the head of the clan did not show up to the meeting.

He couldn't tell Mikoto that.

* * *

Sasuke left soon after sitting with Sakura for a bit. A few hours to be exact. Sakura tried to have a conversation with Sasuke but it only ended with him calling her annoying. It still hurt her feelings but she instantly got quiet after he called her it. She stayed a little longer after Sasuke left. Her thoughts swimming in her head. Ranging from how to get Sasuke to like her to the outcomes of the mission. She stood up and started walking home until the voice in her heard started bothering tuned the voice out and started walking to the home she shared with her parents. She decided to take the long way. The long was along the perimeter and past two of the village gate.

As she walked to her home she felt a presence on the other side of the wall for a millisecond before it vanished. Not one she recognized but it was definitely powerful. There was another signature slowly fading though. As if the person was dying. Sakura walked through the trees closer to the wall. She examined it, looking around to find a way to get on the other couldn't tell if the chakra signature was farther then perimeter she was louder or directly on the other side, but she felt it and they were dying.

* * *

Naruto sat in his room staring at the ceiling.

He felt something was wrong.

Everything looked right.

But _something_ was _wrong._

He helped his dad earlier with some paperwork at the Hokage tower. When his dead left him he ran sacked his office for the letter. When he found it he only got a glimpse of a sentence since his dad was walked into the office.

One by one and it won't stop.

That was the sentence he seen. That could mean anything. It was just at this moment, something was wrong. So he quickly left his house. He took the rooftops and ran as fast as he could to the Uchiha compound. Hopefully the feeling he had had nothing to do with his teammates.

As he ran through the Compound gates, he darted to the main household. He banged on the door, only for a second before Itachi glared at him as he opened it.

"Is Sasuke-teme here?" he asked in a panic.

"Hn." He moved from the door and allowed Naruto to enter. He bolted to Sasuke's room and opened the door unannounced.

"Somethings wrong," he stated taking a seat on Sasuke's bed. The said Uchiha glared at his best friend from his desk. He had no right to just march into his home and room the way he does.

"Fix it yourself."

"The problem is I don't know what the matter is Teme! I can feel it and something feels off. I thought it was with you but clearly your fine," he answered with a frown.

"Good. Now get out," said Sasuke going back to reading his book.

"When was the last time you talked to Sakura today?" asked Naruto.

"I was with her hours ago," came the monotonous answer. He was clearly getting fed up with all the questions. Who wouldn't when you're trying to read?

"We need to go see if she's okay!" he shouted jumping to his feet.

"No."

"She's our teammate! Believe it!"

"Hn."

"Fine. I'll do it by myself," said Naruto exiting Sasuke's room and home. Sasuke stared at his book for a few more seconds before he closed it and chased after Naruto.

* * *

Once Sasuke caught up to Naruto, Sasuke led the way to the where he last saw Sakura. They stopped when they arrived at the training ground and seen no trace of her.

"She must be home," said Sasuke shoving his hands into his pockets.

"Let's go!" exclaimed Naruto as he began walking to Sakura's house.

As they progressed a little farther, they seen Sakura emerge from the bushes that leads to the village wall. She frowned at the sight of them.

"What's wrong? she asked.

"Where are you coming from?" Sasuke countered.

"No where important now." She answered. "You guys want to come to my house?"

Sasuke caught her lie before she could even finish her sentence.

"Yeah! Lets go! Believe it!" exclaimed Naruto falling into step with Sakura.

Sasuke fell into step with the two as they headed to her home.

He sure didn't miss the chakra signature that disappeared from the other side of the wall.

* * *

 **I APOLOGIZE MY PRECIOUSES! I did not mean to neglect my update. I failed a class so I had to slave work to get the m retake the class for the summer session. Which I'm currently in now. That's not my only excuse either. I started reading more fanfictions. I read an amazing ShikaSaku one (most people and Sakura is just amazing to me). I literally wish someone could right that about Sasuke and Sakura. I also read multiple SasuSaku's too. I read a really deep one about SasuSaku. That one made me want to change the whole plot of my story. Others gave me the idea to do a high school/college fic about them. I would do shorter more frequent updates for those.**

 **I have a real question for my fellow college students: Have any of you thought about stripping instead? It's so much easier to swing around a pole. I told my mom, she said just don't be a prostitute.**

 **Anyways: Half of this chapter was done and sitting in my computer. This actually shorter than it was supposed to be. I stopped procrastinating and uploaded it.**

 **I promise I will try to upload another chapter tomorrow or this weekend.**

 **Q &A**

 **Q: Why are the parts with Itachi folding out the situation?**

 **A:** **Because I can do that. Lol jk, I can't say yet.**

 **Please REVIEW, send me thoughts, opinions, fanfictions to read and what not!**

 **Think about….**

 _Why did Sakura lie?_

 _Whose chakra signature was there?_

 _What is Itachi hiding from his mom?_

 _Who are the spies?_

 _How many are there?_

 _ **SailingNotSelling.**_


	4. Don't Look

_**In This Time Chapter 3: Don't Look...**_

Minato was in his office sitting at his desk. A slight frown adored his features. It was not the threat that made him worry, it was the fact that there is a spy in the village. Maybe even more than one. He did not let his fear and worry show when Naruto came to help him out in the office. It would make Naruto panic, and the whole village would know that something was wrong. He had to think about who was in the room when he disclosed information to others about what the course of actions will be. Without a doubt Madara was the only threatening the village. Who had working with him was the issue.

Kakashi? Itachi? Ibiki? Yamato? Shikaku? How many more could it possibly be?

It could be anyone.

That's just the inside help. That isn't even the outside help.

Akatsuki? Specifically, Orochimaru? Nagato? Kakuzu?

Anyone.

Konoha had a few enemies as well. So let's not even begin to include the Countries that wanted to take them down. That made him immediately think of finalizing the peace treaties with other countries. He decided the best course of action would be to continue on as if he did not know there was a spy, but at the same time investigate the people he kept around. He had to go with flow.

It wasn't until there was a knock on the door and someone burst inside.

Minato was used to the random burst from his son, not Jounin of his village.

"Hokage-sama! I apologize, but there has been an attack on a member of the Uchiha clan!" said Asuma.

Minato quickly stood up. "Where is he?"

"The hospital Hokage-sama," he bowed then exited the building.

Minato left seconds after him. He chose to take the rooftops to the hospital to get there faster. He had to see who and the damage occurred. He only prayed the where alive as he made his way to the hospital. He entered the hospital doors and made his way to the Emergency Room in the back. He took into account that they need a better hospital system and more equip staff based off the empty receptionist staff and no one guarding the ER.

As he marched into the ER, being directed to the Uchiha's room. He opened the door and a sigh of relief escaped his mouth.

Sitting in the hospital bed was no other than Uchiha Shisui. He had no shirt on as a nurse was bandaging him up. The bruises on his body began to settle in and there were small scars at jis collarbone adorning his skin.

"What the hell happened?" asked Minato staring at the young man to gain his attention. Shisui looked up and smiled nervously.

"Long story short, I got followed," he answered genuinely. He reached to scratch the back of his head but couldn't from the pain. Minato's eyes hardened.

"You're-"

"Idiot" said the new voice that entered the hospital room. It was Itachi.

"Hey little cousin!" he responded cheerfully. "Long time no see." He grinned.

"Hn."

Minato's eyes never softened.

"You're lying. You weren't followed. You would have known before they even got half a mile to you," said Minato. He folded his arms in front of his chest. Itachi caught on to the conversation.

"But I-"

"What. Happened." asked Itachi. Shisui started to realize the seriousness of his matter.

"Someone is hunting our Shinobi," he answered.

"What do you mean?" asked Minato his voice evident of the importance.

"I filled in for someone who had to go see about reports of suspicious characters near the northwest end of the border. I got there, and I saw some Chuunin group running away from something. Then I felt this big source of chakra behind them. They stopped for a few seconds to brief me. I told them to run back to the village and don't stop. I took off in a different direction and then the person started following me. When I got about three minutes away from here, they attacked me. With the intent to kill. I tried losing them with the Flicker but it's like they knew. That's when I realized I was in some massive deep shit. They caught up to me and showed no mercy in trying to kill me. They left me to bleed out but a beautiful little Angel found me and gave me a soldier pill. She patched me up as best as she could and then I made my way here with the energy from the soldier pill. The nurse said if it wasn't for her I probably would have died," he said. He thought long and hard about how to repay the girl. He'd just have to see her again.

"Did you see what these guys even looked like?" asked Itachi.

"Kind of. They had Akatsuki cloaks on but they had their faces hidden by the straw hats. Something was off about one of them too."

"Alright. Thanks Shisui. Once your belongings have been checked, you can get them back. Your nurse said you should be discharged sometime tomorrow morning. You're off ANBU duty for the rest of the week. Actually, no. You're off of any duty," said Minato. He turned to leave the room but in walked Sasuke and Naruto.

"Baby cousin! Naruto!" he said cheerfully. Minato just shook his head. He smiled as he exited the room. The kid nearly lost his life and still manages to be happy.

"Itachi came and told me you got attacked," said Sasuke. The slightest concern evident in his voice.

"Awww. Were my two favorite cousins worried about me?" Itachi and Sasuke both scoffed at the comment. Itachi turned his attention from his cousin to his younger brother.

"Where's Sakura?" he asked.

"She stayed home. We leave in the morning for our mission. We're staying at her home and she's making preparations for us. Sakura felt she'd be out of place here anyway. She knows how Father is." Shisui had a slightly confused looked.

"That's our teammate!" shouted Naruto. "She's just perfect. I'm going to marry-"

He got cut off my Sasuke elbowing him in the rib.

"Teme…" he muttered in response to the pain.

"I have matters to take care of at home. Until then," said Itachi taking his leave.

"My mother will be stopping by to see you before you are released," said Sasuke. He turned and left as well. Naruto falling in pursuit.

* * *

Sasuke told Naruto to he had to go home and that he'd meet him at Sakura's. He had to talk to Itachi about Mizuki and how he felt a strange presence from where Sakura came from. He knew she wasn't a spy but he was afraid that they would deem her a suspicious character. Itachi was his only hope for now.

He walked through the compound to his home. He was greeted by members of his clan as he made his way to the Main House. He entered and was instantly greeted by his mother.

"Hello Sasuke-chan!" she greeted from the kitchen.

"Mother," he said.

"I thought you were staying at Sakura's?" she called out.

"I am. I have to speak to Itachi first," he said walking to Itachi's room. He saw that the light in his brother's room was on so he just walked in, he felt his chakra anyway.

"Foolish little brother," he said not even looking at Sasuke as he entered. He sat on his desk signing paperwork.

"Itachi."

"How can help you on your unannounced visit?" he asked.

"I think I know who one of the spies are. Sakura also hopped the wall to the other side," Sasuke said. Itachi stopped mid-writing and turned to face his brother.

"You don't who the spies are. What do you mean she hopped the wall?" Itachi went into full investigation mode.

"I don't exactly know but when Naruto and I started heading towards her house, she came out the bushes. I felt a chakra signature outside the wall. It was faint and I didn't recognize it either," he hesitated on saying that. His brother actions so far made him instantly regret saying anything.

"You should have reported to a superior immediately," came Itachi's stern voice. He saw Sasuke frown slightly. "I know she would have been taken into custody and interrogation. I have to report this."

"But-"

"I won't. I'm going to report suspicious activity on the outside of the wall so there will be more patrol along the wall and gates. I'm personally going to look after your teammate, and if something happens, I have to turn her in," he said. Sasuke nodded. Itachi stood up and walked over to Sasuke, poking him in the forehead.

"Go have fun before your first outside the village mission."

Sasuke nodded and left his brothers room. He gave his farewells to his mother. She wished him a safe return. Fugaku only said come back alive.

It made him happy.

His father isn't a man of many words.

But he knew that was his father's way of saying 'Good luck'.

He smiled a little as he walked to Sakura's.

It wasn't until Sasuke was distance until Itachi pondered how Sakura got over the big wall.

* * *

It was bright and early as Team Seven headed to the Hokage tower to meet the bridge builder. The bridge builder was late and Naruto was only complaining. After several minutes the man they were looking for came into the room drinking.

"What? They're all kids!" shouted the man. He glanced at all of them and took a drink from his bottle. "Hey, is the smallest one here with the idiotic face really a ninja?"

Naruto took as a joke and laughed. Then he realized that his teammates weren't laughing. He took the moment to realize that the bridge builder was talking about him. His face deadpanned.

"I'm going to kill you!" he shouted but Kakashi held him back. Reminding him he can't hurt the people he's supposed to be helping. The bridge builder took the chance to present himself.

"I am the expert bridge builder Tazuna. Once we all return to the building site, it is your job to protect me with your lives until the building of the bridge is complete," his tone was smug.

Sakura and Naruto muttered amongst themselves about how arrogant the guy was. After a couple minutes of talking back and forth they left the village. The moment they crossed the gates Naruto got cheerfully excited.

"Alright! Let's go! This is my first time outside the gates! I'm officially a traveler!" Naruto shouted looking around. Sakura rolled her eyes. "Idiot."

Sasuke looked at Sakura out the side of his eye. Mentally telling himself that she snuck out so this isn't her first time.

"Are these kids really capable of this mission?" asked Tazuna.

"I am a Jounin, and I can assure you that you are in safe hands. It's a simple escort mission," reassured Kakashi. Naruto's mood changed completely at being called a kid. Sakura yelled at him for being immature and she reassured Tazuna as well saying Sasuke is more than capable. Sasuke just called her annoying.

As the Team Seven and their client began walking, Kakashi and Sasuke did not miss the presence of a ninja watching them.

* * *

As the group walked away from the village, Sakura's thought started pondering.

"Tazuna-san? You're from Wave country, right?" she asked. He said yes.

"Are their ninja in the wave country?"She asked Kakashi. He told her no but then explained how only the 5 Hidden Villages had shinobi and the Hokage. Out of the three Genin, only she and Naruto doubted the Hokage. Kakshi reassured them that there will be no battles in this mission. It was the slightest reassurance from Tazuna that caught Sasuke's attention. He knew something was up.

They walked more and more until they passed a puddle. Naruto paid no mind and kept going along with Tazuna. Sakura mentally asked herself if it rained overnight as did Sasuke. Kakashi was one step ahead, as he caught the henge, and quickly casted a genjutsu.

The shinobi from the puddle emerged and his partner was thrown at Kakashi. Entagling him in chains. Everyone was taken by surprise as his body was shredding to pieces and landed in a heap on the ground. Sakura put her hands over her mouth and screamed.

"Kakashi-sensei!" shouted Naruto. He instantly froze when he felt the ninja behind him. Sasuke took quick action as the ninja was about to pulverize Naruto. He threw a shuriken and kunai and tacked their chains to a tree. He jumped and stood on their arms and then kicked both in the face, taking the ninja by shock.

They disconnect the chains and ran into two separate directions. One ran towards the bridge builder, and the other towards Naruto. Sakura gave herself a mental pep talk before she flung herself in front of the bridge builder with a kunai. She watched as he came closer and she felt as if this were her end. She figured her mom was right about her as a ninja. Sasuke surprised her and flung himself in front of her. Kakashi then appeared and caught the man by his neck, knocking him out. He had the ninja that was after Naruto in the same hold.

Sakura brightened at the sight. Sasuke looked pissed. Naruto was just in utter shock. Kakashi reminded Naruto of how his actions, rather lack of actions could have been fatal. He complimented Sasuke and Sakura on their effective actions. Tazuna was only happy that he was saved.

Naruto glared at Sasuke. Despite him being his best friend, he couldn't help be jealous of the praise he received and how he reacted effortlessly. Sasuke noticed the look on his face and decided to mess with him about it.

"Are you hurt Scaredy Cat?" provoked Sasuke, he chuckled at Naruto's reaction. Sakura was in love with sound the erupted from his mouth.

The group tied the ninja to a tree and Kakashi explained that Tazuna that he shouldn't have lied about the mission and told Naruto that he was poisoned. Sakura used her little medical knowledge to explain how to get the poison out.

He didn't listen.

Instead, he did a very dramatic Naruto way of doing things. Then that all changed when Kakashi told him he was going to die of blood lost.

After his scene, the headed off to the site of the bridge.

* * *

The group travelled through the water on a boat until they reached the bridge builders home. The house was void of any guests so Kakashi decided to give the kiddos a lesson on chakra control. They first started by standing on water, followed by climbing a tree. Sakura, having precise chakra control, finished all the training first. When she finished she got the okay to end her training.

She started walking back to Tazuna's home until inner started talking to her.

 **You're being followed.**

 _Here you go with that you and me stuff. Like we aren't the same person. Don't go to Tazuna's house, head into the forest away from his home._

 **But I-**

 _Sakura. Run._

Sakura second guessed herself before she started running. She didn't feel any chakra behind her but she went with her instinct. She climbed the tree and sat in its top. Where the thick mist made it hard to view her. She stayed down and stared below on the forest floor.

Her eyes widened as she heard a soft click of shoes on the branch she was hiding on. She was too scared to turn around and look.

"My, my, what do we have here?" asked the voice. Sakura cringed it sounded sickening. She turned immediately when she felt something crawl up her back. She shrieked when she seen a snake and quickly flung it of herself. She actually took in the view of the men.

One had long hair and he was sickly pale. His eyes reminded her of a snake and he just had a sickening smile on his face. But what intrigued her the most was the sight of his cloak. It had red clouds on it. She started to take in the sight of the other man, and her first thought was that he looked just like the multiple Uchiha's she seen in her life.

 _This must be…_

 **It's Uchiha Madara and the other is one of the Legendary Sannin, Orochimaru.**

 _I read a lot about Orochimaru. Not good things though. And that cloak, I've seen it before…_

 **Akatsuki.**

"You're Sasuke-kun's teammate," stated Orochimaru. The way he said it made her shrivel up her face.

 _You can do this, Sakura!_

She whipped out her kunai and stood in a fighting stance. Her turned serious. Orochimaru chuckled and Madara turned his head slightly.

"You have no chance," came Madara's deep and dark voice.

"She's the one that helped that Uchiha our men chased. Kill her, she can be our next package," realized Orochimaru.

"I already know," the moment he finished his sentenced Sakura had a kunai to her throat. She didn't even have the chance to blink. She was taken by surprised, as he just stared at her. His eyes slowly bled to red into the Sharingan. She's seen it before from Kakashi but Madara's was different. "I would love to snap her neck. She can be of even greater use later down the road."

Sakura stared into Madara's eyes challenging him.

 **Sakura! Don't look into-**

She soon felt like she was being choked. She tried to scream but nothing came out.

Then everything turned to black.

* * *

It was dark. That she could tell. She could also tell her body being moved at a fast pace.

She slowly was able to open her eyes, and noticed the forest trees getting farther and farther away. She looked around as much as possible and noticed that her arm was wrapped in a white bandage. She also felt aches and pains coming from all over her body.

"Is she awake?" she heard someone ask.

"She will be okay. Things like this happen when you overtrain Naruto," she felt Kakashi's voice as he talked.

"I need to start training like her!" that response made her smile before she faded back to black.

* * *

 **Once again I accidently held this chapter forgotten in my FF folders. I had two major exams so I didn't get to post it because I had work as well and the sleep was whenever I wasn't working at either one of my jobs or studying for my summer class. I could have been posted this chapter, sorry for failing you all.**

 **But I hope you all review and I really hope you all continue to be patient as things will start to pick up soon before the time skip (they can't be kids forever). Anyways!**

 **Q &A**

 **1\. Someone asked me my major in a PM. Im a Nursing major! I would love to be a Family Nurse Practitioner or Nurse Anesthetist**

 _ **2\. When will there be SasuSaku moments? Soon my loves, soon**_

 _ **Until Next Time.**_

 _SailingNotSelling_


	5. Discretion is Key

_Discretion Is Key..._

Sakura smelled the faint smell of anesthetic. She knew that smell anywhere, the smell of hospital is distinct anywhere. She opened her eyes and sat up and saw her arm wrapped in a bandaged. She looked around the room and noticed her visitor sitting in a chair across from her bed. She stared blankly to gather her thoughts then she blushed deeply at her visitor.

"Itachi-san! What are you doing here?" she asked. She smiled lightly but he continued to give her a hard stare.

"What happened in the Mist and don't say you feel out of a tree," he said kind of coldly. It hurt her slightly cause on the rare interactions the two had she was treated nicely, now he's acting like she's his enemy.

"What?"

"Kakashi-san said you feel out a tree practicing the exercise he taught your team. Which is a lie. There was mud on you from the fall but not a scratch, not even a splinter. The injury associated with your arm is caused by force of another, not a fall from a tree. Your chakra signals were not even depleted upon your arrival meaning that they never were exhausted so chakra exhaustion is a cover up. Now before I have to take you to interrogation, tell me what happened," he said. Sakura looked down and gripped the sheet with her good arm.

"I don't remember…," she said t. "I just remember running and I don't know why. Then….then there's a blank."

"I really don't want to have you placed in interrogation, especially since you are under investigation by me currently. You have until the end of the Chuunin exams to 'remember'," he said with a sigh. As he left the room.

 _Just keep lying._

"Sakura-chan! You're okay!" shouted Naruto as he entered, Sasuke trailing behind with his hand shoved in his pockets.

"Yeah, just chakra exhaustion from training," she lied.

"I know Kakashi-sensei told us. You missed a big battle too. One of the Legendary Swordsmen attacked us and we defeated him and his partner, we got trapped in ice mirrors and everything! You missed a lot Sakura-chan! Sasuke-teme even got his Sharingan activated!..." he continued.

Sakura smiled as he talked but she was too busy thinking about how once again, she was left behind. Behind, unconscious while her teammates fought one of the most wanted criminals in the world.

"Good job guys, sorry I couldn't help again," she said sadly.

"It's okay Sakura-chan, it wasn't your fault," justified Naruto.

"Hn, we are participating in the Chuunin exams at the end of the week too," said Sasuke, changing the subject.

"Yeah! Kakashi-sensei registered us. He said we all proved ourselves and we can try move up to Chuunin!" exclaimed Naruto. Sakura smiled at his happiness.

"Make sure Dead-Last here doesn't ruin it for all of us. If one of us gets eliminated we all do. The first test is an exam," said Sasuke. Naruto's demeanor quickly dampened.

"We will all make it. No one left behind," encouraged Sakura with a smile.

"When do you get out of here?" asked Sasuke.

"If I don't get discharged in an hour, I'm sneaking out of here," she said shyly.

"Well we are going to my house, so when you get out of here, come over," said Naruto.

"Hn, bye," said Sasuke heading out with Naruto. "See you later Sakura-chan!"

When everyone left Sakura released the breath she didn't realize she was holding. She went into her restroom and looked at herself in the mirror. She looked at her reflection.

* * *

A little over an hour went by before Sakura got discharged from the hospital. She changed her clothes and headed to Naruto's place. It's a little past noon when she arrived. She knocked when she got there. Naruto answered, seconds later.

"Hey Sakura-chan! Come in!" he said as he stepped aside to let her in. She walked into the living room, where Sasuke was laying on the floor looking at a movie.

"Where's Kushina and Minato?" Sakura asked.

"Dad got grabbed by Anbu and my mom went to the market to get some stuff to make dinner," he said. Sakura sat on the couch and Naruto sat on the floor near Sasuke.

"That's cool. Your dad must be really busy preparing for the exams," said Sakura.

"I'm used to it. Him not being around. He makes time for me when he can and I always have my mom there mostly. When she can't be there, I just go to Mikoto," explained Naruto.

"We don't want you at my house," muttered Sasuke.

"I'm way more sociable than you are. They don't even want you at your own house!" Naruto yelled. Sasuke scoffed unable to think of a response.

"Security is probably going to be ridiculous for the exams," the words left Sakura's mouth before she could even think.

"Yeah. Security at the gates will be ridiculous. Same for checking formal identification and visiting passes. Some of Sasuke's family are going to be helping out to. Like for preemptive attacks," he continued.

"Shut up dobe. You're not supposed to talk about everything if you plan on being Hokage," said Sasuke.

"I'm surprised you two aren't training for the exams," said Sakura changing subjects.

"After our mission, I need to rest," said Sasuke. Sakura fake gasped. "An Uchiha needs a break? What has the world come to?"

Naruto laughed as Sasuke scowled. "I think you hit a soft spot."

"We have a few days to get some more training in. When do you guys want to start?" asked Sakura.

Sasuke and Naruto shared a look with each other before looking back at her. Sakura looked at them questionably.

"Well Sakura-chan…" started Naruto.

"We think it'll be best to train respectively on our own. My father is helping me. Minato is helping Naruto. Kakashi is going to help both of us," said Sasuke. Sakura frowned slightly and looked down. "What about me?"

"Well Mebuki-san and Kizashi-san can help you! They were Jounin at some point right?" said Naruto. Sakura stood up and scoffed.

"My parents already don't want me to be a ninja. Now you guys are just going to abandon me?"

"It's not like that," said Sasuke. He looked at her to observe her reaction, instead he noticed something else.

"Yeah Sakura-chan! It's-"

"I thought you two of all people would take Kakashi's words to heart the most. Those who abandon their friends are worse than scum." Said Sakura. She rushed to the door and slammed it behind her as she left leaving Naruto and Sasuke to glare at each other.

"Nice going teme!" said Naruto.

"I was just being honest," he justified.

"You didn't have to be an asshole about it! Now go fix it," said Naruto.

"You're coming with me," agreed Sasuke.

It wasn't to apologize. It was to see something else.

* * *

Madara sat in the office of one of Orochimaru's bases and smirked slightly. Orochimaru smiled sickly. He ended his jutsu and the hologram projection disappeared.

"Getting into the village will be harder than expected. I am not surprised. My people may have taken out three squads or close to it so far and sent their bodies back to Suna by now," said Orochimaru.

"Were the bodies planted?" question Madara.

"Yes, they were left with evidence as if they came from the Konohagakure," he answered maliciously. "Next I will go there and talk to the Fourth Kazekage about the Chunin exams."

"Good."

"Your relatives may make this attack harder than planned."

"They are not my relatives," came Madara's dark voice.

"They will make it hard to sneak in the village with that Sharingan."

"There are several other former entry points and weak spots in the wall. Inflitration can begin when they kids are in the Forest of Death. You can sneak in from the weak spot," guided Madara.

"What is the plan?" asked Orochimaru.

"Send Kabuto in, he needs to befriend the pink haired girl and her team. Once we get Suna to attack, we can carry out our plan. The Uzumaki's and the Haruno's stay alive for now. I will take care of my 'family'."

"Kabuto is set to enter the village tomorrow morning when they begin checking in competitors."

"Good."

"Do I still receive my end of the bargain?" Orochimaru inquired.

"Itachi is off limits. Sasuke is yours in the Forest of Death for now. He cannot die, but some people around him can."

"Good."

"The seal on the Haruno, how long does it take to go into full effect?"

"Probably until the second stage of the chuunin exams."

Madara nodded. "In the meantime, she is our eyes and eyes."

* * *

As Sakura stormed to her house, she started questioning the seal in her eyes and the one behind her ear. Her long hair covered the one behind her ear. To see the one in her eyes, you'd have to examine closely. She needed to find the meaning of these seals. She wondered if they had anything to do with her inner being nonresponsive. As she walked, she tried to figure out what to do to train. She did not really have anyone to train her.

Her family is too overprotective and her sensei is training Sasuke. What is she to do?

"Sakura!" she turned to the call of her name. Shocked to see Sasuke running towards her. She stopped as she waited for him to catch up.

"What?" she snapped.

"I'm sorry," she looked taken back. She blushed at his apology.

"It's okay," she said fidgeting with her hands now embarrassed.

"Come one, I'll walk with you home," he said grabbing her and pulling her into the direction of her house.

"What about Naruto? Where is he?" she asked.

"We separated ways looking for you," he said. After his answer, Sakura instantly knew something was up. He has the Sharingan, he should have known instantly which way she went.

"Oh, I see."

"He'll realize and return to his house. That's the plan at least." After the brief conversation, the pair went silent for a bit as they walked until Sasuke started trying to make small talk. Yep, something was definitely up.

"How's your family?" he asked.

"The same as always. How about you? Fugaku-san still giving you a hard time?" she asked.

"Yes, but he's shockingly going to help me for the exams," he answered. "I can try to find someone to help train you."

"Really?!" she exclaimed as they approached her house.

"Hn." She hugged him and he returned the embrace. When they separated he stared at her face and she turned beet red. He tucked some of her hair behind her ear and bid her good bye.

Sakura was too dazed to even remember the seal peeking from behind her ear.

* * *

The next day Sakura headed to the training ground alone. It wasn't something she was used to. Sasuke or Naruto usually met her, and they head to training ground. When she reached the training ground, she saw Sasuke and Kakashi training. She quickly headed into the direction of training ground that is barely used. She started practicing her aim with her kunai and shuriken until she was rudely interrupted.

"Thank you for saving me Angel," said a voice. She quickly turned around to be surprised at the sight of Uchiha Shisui.

"A-anytime!"

"Are your preparing for the Chuunin exams? Where is your teammates at?" he asked, examining her target which barely unscathed.

"We are all training separately for the exams. I didn't know and didn't have time to find someone to help me so I have to do it by myself," she said going back to throwing Kunai.

"You're twisting your body when you throw. You need to hold your posture and throw it with your strength, not with speed. The strength will give it more speed," he said. She decided to take his advice, and hit her target dead on.

"Thank you!"

"You saved my life. I think it's only fair for me to help train you," he said. She nodded. "Every day for 8 hours starting at 7 in the morning," he demanded. The two began their intense training in preparation for the exams.

* * *

 **Apologies for the very late update. Everything I say will be an excuse but that summer class is over and the regular term has started. I also got my surgery! So between classes, physical therapy, and volunteer hours, my life has been chaotic. I might just do short sporadic updates now but I have no idea.**

 **Anyways! Enjoy. Sorry it's so short and do disregard the Shisui and Sakura part, I just needed to put something there so the Chuunin exams could begin in the next chapter.**

 **Please** _ **REVIEW!**_

Too lazy to answer the questions I got…


	6. Fight or Flight

_Fight or Flight …_

Today was a very busy day in Konoha. Today was the first day of the Chuunin exams. The village was filled with all kinds of ninja from different countries and villages. This is the time the hidden leaf made lots of its money. Inns and restaurants were hooking with business. Some clientele were nice and sweet, others with just a look put fear in some of the villagers. Some participants were old and some were young, too young in fact that some believed. However, there is no age limit to serve your country, it was their will and their will alone. Some people came as team, others planned on competing on their own.

It was nerve wrecking for the Konoha teams having different villages shining there. For example, Suna ninja gave the kids of Team Seven a hard time already. It almost was brawl in the streets until the Suna group left in fear of having their visitation passes revoked. Other than that incident. Wait times at different restaurants was outrageous and visiting families had to stay in crappy Inns. It was hard on the three young members of Team Seven to be separated from each other. The group has always been attached like glue. It was healthy for them to be apart. All their training and alone time benefited them each separately and they made better relationships with their trainers.

Naruto and his bond with his father grew tightly. His family grew together as a whole. His father had taken time away from work to help his son and bond with his son's mother. Rumor has it, the couple were trying for another child, but no one in the adult world dared to mention it to their son in fear of the consequences. Naruto's abilities increased greatly. He also learned more on his family history

Sasuke and his father did not bond as well but it was enough for Sasuke to feel as if they grew closer. It was also enough for Mikoto and Itachi. Sasuke learned his fair share of new jutsu. Sasuke gotten faster if that was even possible. His father kept it strictly to practice. He never took it deeper than that, due to his disappointment at Sasuke not following in Itachi's footsteps. Sasuke let that slide over his head, deciding to be his own person.

Sasuke and Naruto still saw each other over the course of training due to their duel training with Kakashi. He took turns with the pair. Never letting the spare so they could save their tricks for the Chuunin exams. As they trained together, they felt like it wasn't right without Sakura. She was the balance when they started to argue or attempted to kill each other. Now it was just Kakashi sitting with his Icha Icha book, and waiting for them to be done.

Sakura's training with Shisui went very well. Her speed and agility improved greatly. In fact, she improved greatly in all aspects. Her thought processed even moved a little faster to calculate enemy movements and their possible approach for attacking. There was something off about Sakura as she got closer to the Chuunin exams. She felt as if at some points she did not have control over her actions or body. Almost as if something was controlling her. It was worse. She just got random intentions of killing. Shisui had to place her in a genjutsu a few times to stop her from attacking him. He noticed she looked out of it but his suspicions were confirmed when she mentioned it to him.

Sakura was currently relentless attacking Shisui. Blocking wasn't an issue for him but he noticed a look in her eyes and it suddenly disappeared. Sakura stopped and backed up to the center of the field. Shisui glancing at her curiously. She looked down at her hands, and dropped the kunai she was holding. A frustrated look was clearly present on her face.

"What's wrong?" Shisui asked approaching her cautiously.

"I… don't really know," she said. She furrowed her brows and looked at him before examining her hands again.

"Explain it the best you can," he said sitting on the ground in front of her. He smiled up at her to show he wasn't scared. She sighed and took a seat next across from him on the dirt.

"It's like I lose myself and then something takes over and starts doing everything for me. Kind of like how inner did when I was shy. Now it's different. It feels like her, but it's so dark. Like a dark spirit takes over me and wants to inflect pain. I try to stop it but nothing happens. Then it disappear and I have control again," said Sakura. She ran her fingers through her hair.

"You need to fight it off. The same way you can fight off a genjutsu," he guided her. They talked for a bit about it before Shisui stood to prepare to take his leave.

"Wait! Shisui!" Sakura called out as she rushed to stand.

"Don't worry kiddo! I won't tell anyone," he said. Sakura's appearance calmed and she was relieved.

* * *

Today was the first day of the exams, This was also the first day Team Seven was going to see each other for the first time since their separation. Sakura was excited as she headed to the training ground. She started jogging there as she got closer, her excitement no longer able to be withheld. Sasuke and Naruto's figure become more defined as she got closer.

"Sakura-chan!" she heard Naruto shout. She did not even get a chance to hug him since he beat her to it. She laughed and returned the embrace. Sasuke only greeted her with a simple 'Hn.' Naruto told them about his training. Sakura was happy, she missed interactions like these with him. She felt like they were a family again. The trio started walking to go register for the exams.

When they trio started got to the room. They saw a guy slightly older than them in green spandex getting bullied by some ninja from Konoha blocking a doorway.

"Please let us through, we're supposed to go in there," said a girl with two buns on her head. The guys blocking the door way began telling everyone how they don't deserve to partake in the exams. Sakura was about to go straighten them out until Sasuke marched forward.

"Move and let me through. Why you're at it, reverse the genjutsu. We can see through your illusion. We need to go the third floor," she said.

Sakura looked confused then it clicked they only went up one flight of steps. Naruto played along as well. One of the guys attempted to attack Sasuke and Sasuke was attempting to attack him. Their strikes were stopped by the guy in the green spandex. The guy's teammates came up and began scolding him for showing his skill level too early. The girl with the buns told them to stop arguing.

When their fuss ended. The guy in green spandex walked up to approached Sakura.

"I am Rock Lee, you must be Sakura, right?" he said. Sakura looked taken back. "Will you be my girlfriend? I vow to protect you with my life." He smiled at her.

She looked beyond confused and immediately rejected his offer. Naruto started laughing at his bold approach. Sasuke just muttered something about Lee being an idiot.

"What's your name?" said the guy with long hair.

"Its common courtesy to give your own name before asking for someone else's," said Sasuke.

Sakura felt the tension growing. She grabbed Naruto's hand and Sasuke's hand and began walking to the third floor.

Lee, the girl with two buns, and the guy with long hair started heading to the third floor as well.

The guy with long hair was not stupid. He knew exactly who Sasuke was, not just him, all of Team Seven.

Lee and Sasuke got into a fight along the way, the victor being Lee. Which left Sasuke in a bad mood. Naruto didn't make it any better by saying that Lee works harder anyway.

Sakura couldn't help but to think that Sasuke and Naruto had some internal beef.

* * *

Once the trio got outside of their destination, they saw Kakashi. He appraised them for all showing up. He gave them his final blessing before allowing them to proceed. They entered through the door and Sakura looked taken back. Everyone she saw looked as if they could kill her without second thought. Her thoughts got interrupted when she saw Ino hugging on Sasuke.

"Get off of him, Pig," she said.

"I'm surprised they let you and your Forehead in here," Ino responded sticking her tongue out. Sakura growled in response.

"Oh great, the royalty is here," said someone with his hair in a high ponytail as he approached them with a chubby guy eating chips.

"Nara Shikamaru, the laziest kid to ever exist. Hey Chouji," said Naruto. Sakura frowned at Shikamaru's name for their team. Her disappointment left her face as she saw her shy friend approach.

"Hey Hinata!" said Sakura waving at her.

"Hi Sakura… h-hi Naruto," Hinata greeted as she approached with her teammates Kiba and Shino. Her face turned beet red. Sakura internally chuckled at her face color. It was due to the crush she had for Naruto. She never greeted Sasuke because he scared her.

"Is everyone here for this stupid thing?" asked Shikamaru. Kiba's dog barked in response.

"I guess so," said Kiba. "We're going to win though, so this doesn't even matter." Naruto furrowed his brows at Kiba's cocky behavior.

"Hey, do you guys mind keeping it down? No offense, you are the Nine Rookies fresh out the academy. You wouldn't want to make a fool out of yourselves," said a guy with gray hair secured in a ponytail.

"Who are you?" asked Sakura. Kabuto turned his attention to her and smiled.

"I am Kabuto Yakushi. This is my seventh time taking it. Since it's half twice a year. This is technically my fourth year. I have data on just about everything and everyone from past experiences. I can tell you that the candidates this year are deadly," he said.

Naruto took that as a challenge. "Hey everyone here! My name is Naruto Uzumaki, and I'm going to kick your ass!"

Sakura sighed. Sasuke smirked at his proclamation. The rest of Rookie Nine snickered except for Ino. She muttered about how he was going to get everyone killed.

Kabuto glanced over the rest of the shinobi in the room until he came across three ninja from Sound. He gave a slight nod at them and they returned it. The three from ninja from the Sound moved to stage an attack. One of the shinobi leapt at Kabuto. Kabuto evaded the attack, and the shinobi in return threw a fist that missed intentionally. Seconds later, the glass in his glasses fell from his frames to the ground. Moments after that Kabuto fell to his knees and Sakura ran by Kabuto's side to help him. Everyone was confused on how that happened if he evaded the attack.

Before anyone could answer, a poof was heard followed by an order. "Alright you baby-faced degenerates. Pipe down and listen up. It's time to begin. I am Morino Ibiki, your proctor. And from this moment, your worst enemy."

Ibiki began stating the rules. "There will be no combat between candidates. No attacking each other without permission of your proctor and even then, the use of deadly force is strictly prohibited. Anyone who even thinks of messing with me will disqualified immediately."

Once he was finished, he collect everyone's registration and everyone was seated to start the written portion of the exam. Sakura started analyzing the questions and realized only a few people can answer them due to their complexity. After thinking about the rules, she determined the purpose was to cheat without getting. Gather information discreetly. Sakura looked over at Sasuke to see if he caught on. He shared a knowing look with her and nodded. Signaling he understood. They both looked at Naruto who seemed to be having a mental breakdown in his seat.

Hinata offered to help Naruto copy her answers but Naruto thought it was a set up and turned down her offer. Time passed too quickly for the trio because before they knew it, Ibiki was asking the tenth question.

"Now, before I give the final question, I am giving everyone a proposition. You can stay and take the final question, or you can leave. If you get the final question wrong, you are banned from taking the Chuunin exams ever again. You will be a genin for the rest of your life in your residing village. If you chose to leave, it will not be held against you if you plan to take the exams again later in the year. However, if you leave, all your teammates are done as well. Choose wisely," he said. It was brief silence before some hands started to be raise. The dozens of hands. Teammates of the participants that gave up yelled angrily at that their teammates. Sakura glanced at Naruto and secretly prayed he wouldn't give in. Sasuke new better to think that Naruto would, how else he would become Hokage.

After dozens of participants left. Ibiki told them they all passed and explained why they passed. Immediately after his explanation, a woman in a mesh shirt, trench coat, and her purple hair tied in a ponytail.

"This is no time to be celebrating. I will be your next proctor, Mitarashi Anko. Let's go follow me!" she said. Anko examined the crowd of participants. "You let all these kids pass? You must be getting soft."

"Or it could be a stronger crop of candidates," he justified.

"Well before I'm done with them, more than half will be eliminated." Sakura looked slightly taken back buy that, but she continued to have faith. "Tomorrow morning will be the next portion of the exam. I will let your squad leaders know where you meeting. Be prepared."

Sakura, Sasuke, and Naruto headed for dinner before they all went their separate ways home.

* * *

The next morning all candidates were required to meet bright and early. They approached a deep forest that was fenced off with a lock around it.

"What is this place?" asked Sakura.

"This is the location for the second phase of the exam. It's the 44th battle training zone, but we call it the Forest of Death," announced Anko. Sakura felt a pulse in her head when Anko said 'death'.

"Why do they call it that?" asked Sasuke.

"Soon enough, you'll find out why," said Anko. Naruto just mimicked her reactions which resulted in Anko to throw a kunai, and leaving a tiny cut on his cheek. She disappeared and reappeared behind him. "So you're some type of macho man I see."

The fear in Naruto's eyes was quite evident and Sakura noticed. A grass ninja appeared behind Anko. Her long tongue left her mouth and at the end of her long-fork tongue was kunai. However, Anko already a kunai at her throat.

"I don't recommend standing this close behind me unless you want a premature end," said Anko. The long-tongue of the grass woman disappeared and she apologized.

"I pardon. The sight of blood just gets me a little excited. I meant you no harm," she said. Before walking away. When the Grass woman walked away, she walked directly passed Sakura. The close presence made Sakura inhale sharply. Sasuke noticed and asked her what's wrong. Sakura brushed it off as if she got a little lightheaded, Sasuke didn't buy it, but he pretended to.

"Now before we begin, I have a consent form you need to sign," she said.

"Why?" asked Naruto.

"Some of you may not come back from this test and I need your signature to state that you're okay with that risk. Otherwise, it would be my responsibility," she said as she passed out the flyers. "Now this portion of the exam will test your survival skills. First, I'll give you a description on the terrain on the practice field. There are 44 locked entrance gates. There is also rivers and a forest inside. In the center is a locked tower, 10 kilometers from each gate. The test consist of anything goes battle to get your hands on two scrolls, a Heaven scroll and an Earth scroll. 26 teams will be a part of this test so only half, at best, will make it. You need to bring both scrolls to the tower in the center. You got 5 days to finish."

"So the dangers the forest itself and being surrounded by enemies doesn't give you a chance to rest," said Sakura.

"Exactly," agreed Sasuke.

"Basically yes. You need to be alert at all times. There are also disqualification rules. First, you will be disqualified if all of your teammates fail to make it to the tower with both scrolls after five days. Number two, if a team loses a member or if a member becomes incapacitated and cannot continue. Finally, none of you may look at the contents of your scrolls until you have reached the tower. One last word of advice, Just don't die!" stated Anko.

After all the teams signed their consent forms everyone prepared to enter the forest. Team Seven went to their assigned gate, 12, and waited for the gate to open. When it finally opened Sakura had a bad feeling about what would happen inside.

* * *

Before an hour has even passed, someone from grass tried to impersonate Naruto. So the trio decided to come up with a long password to state whenever they went out of sight. Just as the passcode was finished. They got attacked. Sasuke hid under the bushes, seconds later, Sakura came running to him. She got the password right. A few minutes after that came Naruto and Sakura's head started pounding. When asked for the password, he also got the password right, which immediately led Sasuke to attack because Naruto would never would get the code right.

The imposter revealed herself to be the grass ninja from earlier. "Why create a password your teammate can't remember?"

"That wasn't the point of the password. It was to catch enemies listening in nearby."

"Clever, you caught me red handed. I bet you would love to get your hands on our Earth scroll to pair it with your Heaven scroll." The Grass shinobi took the scroll out of a pouch and held it up by her mouth. Her long tongue wrapped around it and swallowed it. "Well by the end our meeting, one of us will have both scrolls and the other will be dead."

The grass shinobi inflicted a genjutsu on Sasuke and Sakura. It was the visual of a kunai going through their heads. Sasuke tried to move but realize t=his attempts were futile. Sakura remained unmoving, visually shaking.

"You're paralyzed with fear," the Grass ninja explained. Sasuke moved slowly and grabbed a kunai from his pouch. He took the kunai and stabbed himself and quickly moved himself and Sakura before the Grass shinobi could make a lethal attack on the two.

When they arrived to safety, Sakura began assessing his wound. She started speak about the importance of cleaning it but he covered her mouth quickly. Sakura noticed a snake coming from a side that Sasuke was not focusing on. She quickly removed his hand and moved them both. The snake started attacking Sasuke. He threw a kunai into its mouth and it fell dead on a tree limb.

The skin of the snake began to crack open and out came the body of the Grass ninja appeared. She started to attack before a barrage of kunai and shuriken pinned her to the tree.

"Looks like I made it in time!" shouted Naruto. The Grass woman congratulated Naruto on escaping her snake.

Sakura looked as if she was about to pass out, and Sasuke could not figure out a way to beat the ninja, and there was no way Naruto could take her one on one. So Sasuke did the one thing he thought was logical, hand over the scroll. Sakura protested. She attempted to run to catch it but she physically couldn't move any closer, like someone chained her to the branch. Naruto caught the scroll and grabbed it before the woman could take it. Once Naruto retrieved it, he began to attack Sasuke for trying to do something stupid.

The gut feeling Sakura had before they entered the Forest of Death came back.

Whenever this Grass woman came near, she felt dizzy and now she couldn't move.

This was definitely Orochimaru.

* * *

Shisui came running into the Security office for ANBU. He glanced around and found the person he was looking for, Itachi.

"Little cousin, we have a big problem," said Shisui. Itachi glanced up from the desk he was sitting and looked at Shisui.

"There are intruders in the village," explained Shisui.

"I'm looking over the reports now. They stole passes of visiting Chuunin Exam candidates and passed through one of the entry points," said Itachi beating him to the point. "Mizuki went to alert Anko."

"Shisui furrowed his brows in anger. "Itachi, it's worse than that. Follow me."

Itachi followed him without an ounce of hesitation.

* * *

Sasuke was about to be crushed by the snake but it was Naruto that stopped it from crushing him between a tree and the body of the snake When Naruto looked up, Sasuke saw the slits in his eyes and how much sharper his teeth looked. His thought immediately went to the Nine Tails that should have been lying dormant inside of him. Only a few knew that he carried half of Kurama with him, the other half being carried by Kushina.

The Grass woman signaled the snake to capture Naruto and bring Naruto in front of her. She smiled at realizing that Naruto's anger caused the chakra of the beast to seep through his body.

"Don't worry this won't hurt a bit. Five pronged seal!" the fingertips of the grass ninja were purple and she placed them on Naruto's stomach. He screamed out in pain. Once the painful seal was placed around the current one he currently had, he collapsed. The Grass ninja signaled the tongue to throw Naruto on some branch. Sakura quickly threw a kunai to hold him in place.

A long battle between the Shinobi and Sasuke take place. Ultimately, the Shinobi fell victim to Sasuke's trap. The Grass ninja ended up tied to a tree as Sasuke performed his fire style jutsu on her. You heard the screams throughout the forest.

After a few moments, Sakura attempted to move again. Realizing she could, Sakura ran to were Naruto was pinned and helped him down. She carried him over to where Sasuke was and laid him on the ground.

"You did it Sasuke," said Sakura as she tended to Naruto.

Realization hit him after he caught his breathe. "Why the hell didn't you do anything Sakura?!"

Sakura didn't answer and Sasuke kept going. "Naruto and I were the only ones that participated in this battle and all you did was stand on a branch and watch! Kakashi isn't here to save us this time. It's real! It's life or death."

"I was lightheaded," was her only justification as she stood to face him.

"It doesn't matter Sakura! Try not to be so useless next time. You said you learned some new things but clearly you haven't," he argued.

Sasuke and Sakura's arguing had their full attention. Neither noticed the Grass shinobi break apart from the strings of thread. The skin on this shinobi falling off to reveal Orochimaru and the hitai-ate revealing that of the Sound. He shinobi started walking closing to the pair before she performed hand symbols. Sakura and Sasuke froze and watched the shinobi.

The shinobi performed a jutsu and its neck launched in the direction of the two. Sakura tried to push Sasuke out the way but it felt as if someone set her body on fire, the pain too bad for her to fight through. The shinobi latched his teeth into Sasuke's neck.

"I gave you a little parting gift. Very soon Sasuke will seek me out for my power," Orochimaru's neck retracted and he began sinking into the tree.

"Ahhhhhh!" screamed Sasuke. He fell onto the branch. A barely recovered Sakura pulled him over to where Naruto was. She sat on the branch and put Naruto head on her lap and held Sasuke to her chest. Then she cried.

"I'm so sorry guys," she sobbed. Neither of them moved. She cried harder. "That was Orochimaru and I couldn't do anything." She rocked back and forth. "I trained so hard and I couldn't do anything."

The birds chirping began to dim as the sunset and Sakura cried a little harder. "What do I do?"

* * *

Sakura managed to carry their bodies to cave formed in a tree. Sasuke and Naruto both laid on conscious. She had cold rags on both their foreheads and sat between them waiting for them to awake.

 _It's all my fault._

She couldn't help but think it was all her fault as she closed her eyes. It took her too long to process who the Shinobi was. She couldn't even fight because of the seal he had placed on her. Once again, her teammates had to do all the work and she couldn't do a single thing.

"Some look out if your half sleep. You don't have to keep watch anymore since we already found you. Now wake Sasuke up, we want to fight him," said a voice. Sakura instantly rose to her feet with a kunai and faced three new Sound ninja. She recognized them as the ninja that attacked Kabuto.

"What do you want? I already know you're with Orochimaru and that you're here for the seal on Sasuke," yell Sakura. "He can't even defend himself."

"I can't stay quiet after hearing this girl speak to us like that. First, I'm going to kill her, then Sasuke," said one the guys from the Sound.

"Wait Zaku. She left some traps. Pitiful ones at that. Let's get her," said the Shinobi that's crouching. Zaku and his teammates all launched at Sakura. However, their attack was rudely interrupted by Lee.

"What are you doing here Lee?" asked Sakura as she joined his side.

"I'm going to protect you until I die," he said. Instantly, she remembered of is proclamation yesterday. Lee unwrapped his bandages that covered his arm and used the forbidden Lotus technique on 'Dosu'. Before Dosu could land on a fall that will break his neck, Zaku managed to break it. Saving his life by a hair.

Dosu got out of the soft dirt that Zaku created and lifted his sleeve. He rushed over to Lee and swiped his arm in front of him. "My turn."

Lee fell to his knees and as his vision blurred.

"That hasn't even do nothing," said Dosu. "I'm going to show you something called the wall. Our jutsu is faster because it travels at the speed of Sound."

Lee began coughing and hacking. He threw up a little too.

"Lee what's wrong?" yelled Sakura. Then she realized once she saw blood dripping from his left ear.

 _He's hitting Lee with sound! I have to help._

Sakura went back to where she was hiding Sasuke and Naruto and their bodies deeper in the tree. When she came back out she had a kunai in hand. She tried to calculate any possible attacks but every attempt would have ended poorly.

"Now then little girl. It's your turn," said Dosu. He started darting off into her direction. Lee intervened the jutsu. Dosu made the impact of sound stronger causing Lee to collapse on the ground. "Time to end this."

"Not in your dreams," said Sakura. She threw some kunai with easily deflected off his machine on his arm. Sakura threw some shuriken at Dosu and Zaku used his air machines in his hand to blow the shuriken back at her. They sliced her arm and she froze.

She felt the blood slide down her arm then she felt it, another presence inside of her. She pushed it down as the girl of Dosu and Zaku's team appeared behind her with a tight grip on her hair. Sakura fell to her knees.

"Hey Zaku, let's make her watch as we finish off Sasuke," said the Sound girl.

"Sounds good to me," said Zaku.

Sakura started crying as the Sound girl yanked her hair. Zaku slowly started walking towards the unconscious Sasuke. Sakura panicked and took out a kunai.

"That won't work on me," said the Sound girl.

"It's not for you," said Sakura as she sliced her hair. She quickly stood and Kin stumbled back.

"Kin! Finish her," yelled Zaku.

Kin went to attack but only attacked a log. Sakura used another substitution when Zaku used the machines in his hand on her. The real Sakura attacked from midair. Zaku tried to stop her by piercing her with several kunai. He was left off guard since he thought it was clone, she took the opportunity to dig deep into his arm with a kunai. She turned it as he kept punching her. He got a chance to throw her off of him.

Zaku got prepared to finish her until Ino, Shikamaru and Chouji blocked Zaku's view of Sakura.

"You're not going to show me up Forehead. You can't get all the credit for looking good in front of Sasuke.

Chouji used his human boulder technique on Zaku. Ino used her mind transfer on Kin. And Shikamaru used his shadow possession technique. Their attacks all failed.

Neji and Tenten came after InoShikaCho attacks failed. Everyone's attention was directed to the tree where Sasuke stood. There was a strong surge of chakra surround him and his skin had markings over half of his body. It actually scared Sakura.

"Sakura, who did this to you?" came his dark voice.

"Are you okay?" she asked.

"It's just the power flowing through me," he said. "Which one of these people did this to you?"

"That'll be me," came the arrogant term on Zaku's voice. Shikamaru grabbed Ino's body and hid in the bushes and whispered at Ino in Kin's body to release herself and told Chouji to get out of there.

"Super Sonic Massive wave!" shouted Zaku. He used his strongest attack in Sasuke's direction. Once his attack was over they weren't insight.

"What do you know? It blew them all away," Zaku said smug.

"Not quite," came Sasuke's voice from behind him. Sakura and Naruto were safely with him. He hit Zaku and he went flying in Dosu's direction. Sasuke used his fire jutsu on him, and Zaku countered it with his air machine. The flames blew out to only realize that they were a cover for shuriken. Zaku covered himself and Sasuke appeared quickly behind him.

Sasuke place a foot on his back and help Zaku's arms behind him. Sasuke gave a sadistic smirk and pushed hard on his back.

"One left," he said. Sasuke started walking to Dosu and Sakura realized this wasn't the Sasuke she knew.

"No! This won't solve anything! You done enough already. Don't strain yourself," Sasuke only stared at her as tears leaked from her eyes. The curse mark began receding.

"Here's our scroll. You take it and let us go. We cannot defeat you, but we did find out what we wanted to know. I promise you next time in combat, we won't run or hide," he said. He started walking to gather his teammates and left.

Tenten went to wake Lee up. Shikamaru and Chouji hit Naruto over the head with a stick to wake him up. He looked around for the Grass ninja. Then he took notice of his surrounds and the damage dealt to his allies. He saw Sakura, with a short hair, and Sasuke sitting further away.

"What happened to your hair?" Naruto questioned.

"I changed my look," she responded.

She stood up and walked over to Lee, with Sasuke trailing behind her, and thanked him.

Sasuke couldn't even think of how strong those Sound ninja were. Ino came over to help Sakura even out her new cut.

* * *

Sasuke, Sakura and Naruto made it to the tower with both the Heaven and Earth scroll with the help of Kabuto. He guided Team Seven through traps and explained the easiest way to get there. Once they reached the tower, they parted ways.

Kabuto and his teammates went a different way in the tower.

"It went even better than expected. I learned a lot about him the second exam and I even recorded all the data," said Kabuto. He pulled out his card and handed it over to his boss.

Orochimaru took the card that had data imprinted on it. "Good job as a Sound village spy. How is the Haruno?"

"She's going to lose it during the battle portion of the exam. Her seal will go into full effect. You might want to suppress partially. It could foil our plan," Kabuto answered.

Orochimaru let out a sickening laugh. "Madara and I convinced the Kazekage to stage an attack during the final portion of the exam. Madara is currently staging some things in the other portion of the village to keep our presence unknown in the exams. I would let her get out of hand, she would be a mere distraction of what is taking place outside of this forest. Konoha shinobi should have found the bodies of the Grass shinobi by now. You're going to need to forfeit the upcoming battle, you will be the one too many."

"Yes, Lord Orochimaru," he responded. Orochimaru disappeared leaving Kabuto and his team alone.

* * *

All the squad leaders, some Anbu members, proctors and the seven teams that passed, were present in the room.

"21 ninja has made it through the survival portion of the exam. Congratulations," said Anko addressing the ninja in the room. Anko was surprised that out of 78, that 21 made it. She thought only a single digit would make it. "Lord Hokage should be here as well to congratulate but he seems to have other matters to attend to first.

"Now everyone listen! Gekko Hayate, the next proctor, is going to explain the third portion of the exam," Anko shouted.

Hayate appeared to the front of everyone. "I would like to say congratulations to everyone that passed. However, none of us expected this many of you to pass. So we will have to hold a preliminary round to speed this process up. The preliminary will begin immediately, so if you feel as if you're in no condition to compete, now is your time to leave."

Hayate continued. "The winner will be determined by one on one combat."

Sasuke grabbed his shoulder and Sakura got worried.

"You need to quit," she whispered to Sasuke. Naruto turned and faced her like was crazy. "The mark Orochimaru gave you turns you into some monster Sasuke."

Naruto had no idea what she was talking about. "What mark?"

"Sasuke. You're suffering," she argued.

"It's not your problem, it's mine. So just be quiet," he whispered angrily.

Their argument got cut short when someone raised their hand, drawing all the attention to him.

"I'm out," said Kabuto after Hayate began explaining.

"Why would you quit? You made it this far," said Sakura. "Now is your chance to finally pass!"

"I have no hearing in my left ear after dealing with those Sound ninja. So now I would have to put my life on the line. I can't do it," he said.

Ibiki took note of his forfeit. He recalled this not being his first time dropping out. "Anko, what information do we have on him?"

Anko went through his paperwork. "He failed six times in a row. His time in the academy was not impressive. He had average grades, and it took him three times to pass the graduation exam. However, there's something before his time in the academy. He was in only survivor of some raid."

As Kabuto walked away, he shared a look with Orochimaru, who was standing in the crowd of ninja that passed.

"So is there anyone else that wants to quit?" said Hayate.

Sakura attempted to raise her hand and Sasuke held her arm down.

"She's just trying to help you Sasuke," defended Naruto.

"I want to fight you too," said Sasuke.

"What has gotten into you two?" Sakura asked. "You guys hate each other all of a sudden.

"Alright then. There are no rules. The battle is over when one dies or concedes to defeat, or physically unable to continue. It is best to concede to defeat before a fatally occurs. Now the panel will show you who you will be matched against," said Hayate. "Everyone please move to the upper level. Let's begin."

* * *

 _Sasuke v. Yoroi._

Yoroi drained Sasuke's chakra at the beginning of the battle. Sasuke felt weaker and weaker. He managed to stop Yoroi and dodged his attacks. Sasuke avoided using his Sharingan to keep his curse mark a secret. He used moved from Lee to catch Yoroi off guard. Before, Sasuke could finish his attack, the curse mark spread. Sasuke pushed through the curse mark, making it recede and finished his attack on Yoroi.

"The curse mark?" questioned Minato.

"That means Orochimaru was here," said Anko. "How is Sasuke even alive? He should have died from getting it."

After Sasuke's attack, Yoroi and Sasuke fell to the ground. Hayate inspected Yoroi and said that he was unfit to continue. Sasuke stood up showing that he is okay.

"I'm officially ending this battle. Uchiha Sasuke is victor," said Hayate.

Sasuke fell back to the ground as the pain started to reappear. Kakashi appeared beside him.

"We have to seal curse mark," he said.

"What?"

"Let's go. You should have said something about this once you arrived," he lectured. The two walked to an empty room and Kakashi performed the sealing of the jutsu.

 _Zaku v. Shino_

Everyone questioned how Zaku would fight with two broken arms. It was arms were down, not his hands. Zaku used a blast wave on him that Shino survived. Shino's parasitic bugs began closing in Zaku's back side. Leaving him with no options but to forfeit, which he didn't do.

Zaku revealed both of his arms were fine. Just when he was about to attack, he noticed Shino's bugs plugged up the wind holes in Zaku's hand. Shino bugs blocked the only exit for the energy, blowing up his arms, ending the battle.

"I say this one has had it," said Hayate examining Zaku. "The winner is Aburame Shino."

Lee and Neji were confused on how Shino did that. He used his Byakugan to find out the insects reside inside Shino's body.

"He's an insect tamer," said Guy, Neji and Lee's sensei.

After Shino's attack, Kakashi appeared.

"Where's Sasuke?" asked Sakura and Naruto.

"He's fine. He's resting in the infirmary under guard by Anbu Black Ops," answered Kakashi. Sakura and Naruto had no further questions.

 _Kankuro v. Misumi_

Both opponents began the battle trying to convince each other to drop out. It didn't work. Misumi dislocated the joints in his body, softening them and wrapped himself around Kankuro.

"Give up," said Misumi. Kankuro smirked and Misumi snapped his neck.

The skin of 'Kankuro' began to break. He turned his neck around to reveal to be a puppet. Its limbs wrapped around Misumi. Once he was secure, Kankuro revealed himself from where his puppet is usually resting.

The puppet continued squishing him until you heard several cracks. Misumi fell to the ground.

Hayate didn't even have to walk over. "Because his opponent is unable to continue, Kankuro wins."

 _Tenten v. Temari_

Tenten threw some kunai and they all missed Temari, shocking everyone but a few because she her aim is perfect.

"This battle is already over," said Shikamaru. Chouji agreed.

Tenten used some more of her weapons and they all deflected. She tried to use her secret attack however, Temari deflected them again. Temari used strings to control her weapons and Temari used another wind attack, sending Tenten and her weapons crashing to the ground.

Temari disappeared with her fan, leaving a confused Tenten. She reappeared floating on her fan and used a slicing wind jutsu to attack Tenten. Tenten crashed on top of Temari's fan, a speck of blood escaping her mouth. Safe to say this battle is over.

"That wasn't any fun," said Temari.

"Winner of this match, Temari," announced Hayate.

 _Shikamaru v. Kin_

Shikamaru tried to use his shadow possession, Kin evaded it and threw needles with bells attached. Shikamaru thought he saw right through her trick but he was wrong. She attached strings to the two needles she threw, catching Shikamaru off guard. He turned and Kin threw senbon needles at him.

Kin started to ring the bells and Shikamaru fell to his knees.

"The bells send off a peculiar sound wave. First it causes paralysis, then hallucinations," Kin explained. She threw more senbon at him.

She was prepared to through more until Kin froze.

"My shadow possession did work," said Shikamaru. "That thread wouldn't cast a shadow like that at that height."

With Kin, mirroring his movements, he reached into his pouch for a Shuriken to throw at her.

"You throw it and you hurt yourself," she yelled at him.

"I guess we will play a game of Chicken then," said Shikamaru. They both threw it and Shikamaru bent backwards. Kin did the same and banged her head against the wall knocking her unconscious.

"Winner of this match, Shikamaru," announced Hayate.

 _Naruto v. Kiba_

Right before this match, Sakura felt sick. She excused herself from her watch position and hurried to the bathroom.

She went to the sink and started dry heaving. She physically felt herself shaking. She looked in the mirror and noticed the glow of a seal in her eyes.

"Kabuto was right, your seal is beginning to manifest your body," said a voice. She looked off to the side in the mirror and saw Orochimaru. Another dry-heaving fit coursed her body, preventing her from calling. "It's an internal manifestation."

"You have been my eyes and ears since our last encounter," said Orochimaru.

Sakura ran past him into a stall and began puking into a toilet, blood. After a few minutes of puking, she sprawled out on the floor of the bathroom stall. Looking at the ceiling. Orochimaru just watched in excitement.

"That inner personality of yours, sure did put up a fight," he said. Sakura turned her head in his direction and could only muster up a glare.

"Don't worry, she's okay. She's just going through a bit of transformation for these exams. She'll be what I want before your turn is up," Orochimaru slowly started doing hand signs and Sakura felt as if her head was going to explode, she wanted to scream but no sound left her mouth.

"That personality of your will be working for me for now," he said. "You're going to make my dirty work a little bit easier."

Sakura wasn't even listening at this point.

"I bet you knew something was wrong. I know you felt those urges to inflict pain," he said. "I know you told that other Uchiha too. We also did you a favor, made sure you were the least of Itachi's worries right now."

Orochimaru walked to Sakura and knelt beside her. He touched her temple. It was almost a soothing relief at his touch. "Make sure you thank Kabuto when you see him. Without his spying, I would have never been able to get to Sasuke."

Orochimaru did some more hand signs before he placed his hand over her eyes as a purple chakra emitted from his hands. "It'll feel like you're taking a nap. We're going to awaken that other personality inside of you. Let's give her a test run for the preliminary round."

Sakura stood and stared at herself in the mirror. He did a transformation jutsu and walked Sakura out the door. When she returned, she stood idly by Kakashi. He instantly knew something was off.

"Who won?" she asked.

"Naruto did. He outsmarted Kiba," Kakashi answered.

"That is good. Where is he?" she asked. The inner personality controlling Sakura knew to avoid eye contact.

"He's speaking to Minato. He should be back over here right before the start of the next battle. I hope you're ready. You will be up soon."

 _Hinata v. Neji_

Everyone thought this battle should not have existed. It was unfair for the relatives to attack each other.

"Hinata, withdraw now," said Neji. "You should have never came a genin."

Hinata refused to withdraw and the battle began with both of their Byakugan activated.

They both spent beginning of the battle blocking each other's attacks. One blow could be futile by blocking their chakra network.

However, Neji landed the first blow, then the next, and another sending Hinata flying.

"Forfeit the match. This is my last warning," said Neji.

"Never," she said as she stood up back into fighting stance.

Hinata charged at Neji. They began battling until Neji landed a devastating blow to Hinata's heart causing her to collapse on the ground. She shocked everyone by getting back up once more to fight him.

"Just accept defeat," said Neji. "You're suffering."

"No, your suffering more than I am from being from the side branched of our clan," she said.

That was enough for Neji, because he darted towards with the intent of killing her. Hayate, Guy, Kurenai and Kakashi intervened.

She couldn't with stand the effects of her pathways being blocked any longer and she collapsed. Naruto wanted attack Neji for attempting to kill her, but Lee stopped him.

Kurenai tended to Hinata. She glanced at Neji, as he realized she was going into cardiac arrest.

"You shouldn't be glaring at me, instead caring for her," said Neji smug.

"She has no pulse! We have ten minutes at best," shouted a medic.

With everyone focusing on Hinata, Sakura remained in her place. She tilted her head to the side as Orochimaru walked to her side, hidden by a henge. "How unfortunate. I wanted to see someone die."

Orochimaru snickered. "Don't worry, you're up next."

That earned a sinister smile from Sakura as Orochimaru walked away.

 _Sakura v. Ino_

This battle was another surprising one. No one thought the two former friends would have to fight each other.

Sakura walked slowly down to the battle area, as did Ino.

"Go Sakura! Don't lose!" shouted Naruto.

Once Hayate began the battle, Sakura and Ino charged at each other. Sakura dodged Ino's attack effortlessly. Once Ino was tired, Sakura began relentlessly attacking Ino.

Sakura landed a devastating blow to Ino's stomach sending her flying. She coughed up blood when she landed.

Ino got back up but Sakura threw kunai and shuriken at her, which Ino dodged.

"Is it me? Or is Sakura showing no mercy?" asked Naruto.

"Sakura is definitely being brutal," said Shikamaru. "This isn't like her."

"I don't think this is her." Said Kakashi. "It's like something is controlling her.

Ino closed the distance between her and Sakura, she began hand to hand combat battle again. Sakura retrieved a kunai from her pouch, and started attacking her with it.

Ino jumped back away from her. She took out her own kunai from her pouch. Using it to slice her ponytail. She threw he cut strands in front of her angrily.

"What is wrong with you!" she shouted at Sakura. Sakura glanced down at Ino's hair and charged at her. She got just in front of her before she froze. Sakura looked down and noticed chakra holding her legs. Ino used her mind transfer jutsu and Ino's body slumped to the ground, the chakra restraining Sakura disappearing.

"It worked!" shouted Ino from Sakura's body. Ino began to raise Sakura's hand until she froze. Sakura's body started trembling then she fell to the ground too.

"Sakura! What the hell are you doing!" shouted Ino.

Inside Sakura's head, Ino witnessed something she never thought existed. Another Sakura, but this one was much darker. There was another Sakura laying on the ground, unmoving.

"What are you?" Ino asked looking around. Her eyes widened in fear at the different images of her being able to die.

"The one that will kill you," it answered.

The spirit walked over to Ino, grabbing her by her neck and tightening its grip. Ino clawed at its arms unable to breathe. "I can't do this."

It released her. "Killing you here would be too easy. I want people witness your cries for mercy."

On the outside, Ino released her mind transfer jutsu. Once she came too, she back up against the wall in fear.

"You are NOT Sakura! You're some type of monster!" shouted Ino.

Sakura looked up and smiled. Sakura made shadow clones and Ino began attacking them, pushing her away from the wall. Ino failed to pay attention to all her surroundings because Sakura was lunging at her with kunai, shoving it right through her back.

Ino's eyes widened as she spit out blood.

"INO!" shouted her teammates.

"Sakura! What are you doing?!" shouted Naruto. "Stop it."

Ino fell to her knees and Sakura stood behind her, still holding the kunai plunged into her back. Ino was gasping for air.

"I think you have a collapsed lung. Seems like you can't even speak to forfeit," said Sakura.

"That's enough Sakura!" shouted Kakashi.

Sakura took the kunai out of Ino, causing her to fall to the floor, gasping for air. Ino managed to turn to her side and Sakura kicked her hard in the stomach, making her slide across the floor and Ino holding her chest gasping for air.

 _Crack_

"Sounds like you have a broken rib too," said Sakura walking to Ino, standing above her.

"Someone stop this fight!" shouted Lee.

Sakura was thriving off of this. She used her foot to roll Ino onto her back. The floor being stained with her blood.

"Alright, let's end this." Sakura placed her foot on Ino's neck preventing Ino from breathing what air she could. Just before she could put enough pressure to break her neck. Sakura was being thrown from her position by a kick from Guy.

Hayate was rushing Ino over to the medics while Kakashi was restraining Sakura from doing any more harm to Ino. Chouji and Shikamaru were being restrained by Sarutobi. Naruto was too shocked to do anything.

Several Anbu Black Ops member came by Kakashi side to help with restraining Sakura who didn't even flinch.

Orochimaru enjoyed the show. Kabuto appeared by his side signaling to him they had to go.

"I think I went too far," Orochimaru said to Kabuto.

"I think it's best to release her. Interrogation will find her seal and it will make things harder for us to attack," said Kabuto.

Orochimaru did some hand signs releasing the seal from Sakura completely and leaving. "Now I have to explain to Madara what happened."

Kabuto and Orochimaru left by a small poof that didn't go unnoticed by Kakashi or the Anbu present.

He turned his attention back to Sakura who let out a sickening scream. Kakashi released her and she felt to the floor thrashing around in pain clutching her head. Seconds later, her movements stilled and she laid unmoving.

Kakashi knelt down and checked her pulse. He released a sigh of relief at feeling her pulse before calling over the medics. "Take her to the infirmary."

As the medics were transporting Sakura to a stretcher, some volunteers were cleaning blood from the floor. Kakashi returned to his position on the upper level to watch the next battle.

Hayate walked to the center of the room. "Due to both participants unable to continue their fight. I declare no winner."

The room was silent at what they just witnessed.

"What was that?" asked Shikamaru.

"Orochimaru casted some sort of jutsu on her. He was here watching," said Kakashi.

"Is Ino going to be okay?" asked Chouji.

"Yes, she'll be fine. After Chouji competes, we can go visit her. A collapsed lung isn't a big deal," said Sarutobi.

"Is Sakura going to be alright?" asked Naruto.

"That, I am not sure of Naruto. I never seen anything like that before. I'm more worried about the interrogation she's going to have to go through now," answered Kakashi truthfully.

"When did they ever cross paths?" questioned Sarutobi.

"I'd say during our mission to the Mist. She finished her training early and was returning to our client's home. We found her on the ground in the forest nearby. It was like she was trying to outrun them, but guided them away from the our clients family at the same time," guessed Kakashi

 _Lee v. Gaara_

This battle was difficult to watch. Lee nearly killed himself and Gaara almost killed Lee. In the end, Lee arm and leg was shattered. Naruto couldn't really focus on it, only on his teammates. After this battle and the winner was declared Gaara, Naruto went to the hospital. He missed his father coming to congratulate the winners but he needed to see them.

He needed answers.

And to make sure they were okay.

* * *

 **I hated this chapter. The next one will be my favorite. I really wish I could have skipped this. You have no idea, but then nothing would have made sense in the next chapter. What I had planned for this portion would not have worked so I completely changed it.**

 **Took forever because I literally had to watch the Chunnin exams and type this while studying for my practical.**

 **Read & Review**

 **PS: If there's anything you would like to see, feel free to message me. Maybe I could incorporate something.**

 **Q: Will the Akatsuki be in here?**

 **-Absolutely.**

 _Ignore the typos and stuff. I was rushing~ SailingNotSelling_


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